How the Timucua Used Plants

WHAT PLANTS DID THEY GROW IN GARDENS?  They grew beans, corn, gourds, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, and tobacco.   They used the beans, corn, pumpkins, squash, and sunflower seeds as food.  They used gourds to make bowls, musical instruments, and birdhouses.  They used tobacco in ceremonies.  (They did not know that tobacco can cause cancer.) 

WHAT WILD PLANTS DID THEY COLLECT FOR FOOD?  They gathered acorns, blackberries, blueberries, grapes, hickory nuts, maple sap, mushrooms, palm fruits, palmetto fruits, peppergrass seeds, pigweed seeds, plums, thistle leaves, and many more.   They also collected yaupon holly leaves to make the black drink, a ceremonial tea.  Click here to see a French Drawing of the Black Drink Ceremony.

WHAT OTHER PLANTS DID THE TIMUCUA USE?  Willow tree bark was used to make aspirin.  Wax myrtle leaves could be rubbed on the skin as insect repellent.  Pine and cypress tree trunks were made into canoes.  The branches and trunks of hickory trees were made into bows.   Rivercane stems (like bamboo) were used to make arrows.  Palm and palmetto leaves were woven into mats and baskets and used to make the roofs of their huts. 

REMEMBER:  NEVER EAT A WILD PLANT!

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